Standing Up
by violet-phoenix-rose
Summary: Narnia/HP crossover. Going through the door was SUPPOSED to take them home. Instead, the four Pevinsies are fifty years in the future, compelled to save the world they're now in, and stuck with a strange girl. Read and review! Rating is precautionary.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Narnia/HP crossover. Occurs right after Prince Caspian in the Narniaverse and at the beginning of DH in HP. Please review!

---

_Susan's POV_:

The door we walked through was supposed to take us home. No such luck, I realized as I blinked and saw that we had not ended up in the crowded London-area train station we'd been in before our crazy adventure occurred. Instead, it seemed to be some sort of meadow in a place that was anything but familiar.

"Where ARE we?" Edmund asked, seeming a bit confused. I couldn't blame him if he was - I had no idea what was going on either, and people said I was perceptive for a 16-year-old girl.

"Yeah - what happened?" If Edmund was confused, Lucy was freaking out. I couldn't blame HER either - eleven-year-old girls are supposed to overreact, aren't they? She wasn't usually like that, but she'd changed a lot over the past year or so.

"I don't know," I said, trying to calm them down. Peter usually took that job, but he was pacing and moving his hands and mouthing various things, which we knew was his weird way of sorting things out.

Then things just HAD to get worse! A girl with maroon hair, wearing the strangest getup I'd ever seen, had appeared on the horizon, and she was walking straight towards us.

---

_Helena's POV:_

All I wanted was to escape, and who could blame me! Nothing outright had happened yet, but my friends and I agreed that it wasn't a good time for a Muggle-born nearly-18-year-old witch to be in England. I didn't really know anyone in foreign countries, but Mum had a second cousin in New York who she was on good terms with. I'd 'forget' to mention that I was a witch, get on my feet with Mum's cousin's help, and hopefully never see Great Britain again.

Then something happened that threw a wrench in my plans. As I walked to the meadow I usually went to when I wanted to avoid people, I saw that I wasn't going to be alone. A group of kids stood right in the center of the meadow, visibly confused. The oldest, a dark-blond-haired boy, looked about my age; there was also a girl who didn't seem much younger, a boy who looked 14, and a girl who simply HAD to be 11. At the very least, they had to be harmless.

"Where'd you guys come from?" I asked, getting closer to them. "I've never seen you around here, and I know the entire population of Glenmeade like I know my own family."

The older girl, who was quite pretty and obviously knew it, looked at me with contempt. I admit that my dyed-maroon hair, quirky clothes, and gift for just walking up and talking to people could be off-puttting at times, but no one had ever been more than a little weirded out over it. Wherever these kids came from, it was probably a straight-laced sort of place.

"My name's Helena Daniels," I said in an awkward attempt to break the silence. "You are?"

"Edmund," the younger boy said, stepping forward and shaking my hand. My guess on his age seemed to be correct; his awkwardness at having to get near me was characteristic of a fourteen-year-old. "Where exactly are we? More importantly, what day is it."

"It's June 17, 1997, and you're half a kilometer from the village of Glenmeade, in northern England. That enough information for you?" I'd said more than your average person would want to know - most kids can remember what year it is, at least - but these four seemed different. "Where'd you guys come from?"

"How capable are you of believing weird stuff?" the younger girl asked, looking me as much in the eyes as she could, as she was about a foot shorter than me. "I'm Lucy, by the way."

"Weirdness is totally okay," I said, although I wasn't sure I NEEDED to say that. As a general rule, any girl with maroon hair and quirky clothes has already chosen enough weirdness that nothing can really shock her. Or so I thought...

"We're not from here at all," the older boy said, disregarding the piercing look the older girl sent him. "We... I know you won't believe this, but we seem to have traveled fifty or so years forward in time, by way of an alternate world."

I wasn't exactly having trouble believing these kids, even though what they'd just said made everything I knew look totally standard in comparison. They were just as lost as I was, though at least they had good reason to be. "Do you have any idea why you're here?" I finally asked.

"No," the older girl said, making it clear that if she had her way, she'd NEVER be speaking to someone like me. "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself? We've practically told you our life stories, and all we know about you is your name."

"Now it's my turn to question your ability to deal with weirdness," I laughed. "I'm a witch; a very scared one who's flying to visit a relative in America tomorrow and probably not coming back."

"Cool," Lucy said, as though she met people like me every day. "Why are you leaving?"

"It's a LONG story," I explained. "It involves a pack of seriously evil people who think that people like me - people who weren't born in Wizarding families - aren't worthy of living. They haven't done anything seriously outright yet, but my friends and I think I'll probably live longer if I get out of the country ASAP."

"Strange as it sounds, that makes sense," the older girl said, still being really cold towards me but not outright hateful anymore. "Look, we need someone to help us, and we're desperate enough that you're that person. I think we're here to try to save your world, and we need a guide. Could you at least introduce us to someone who could help us?"

How could I say no? These kids were helpless, and I felt obligated to do SOMETHING.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Little piece of info you should know - the rest of the story is going to be told through Helena's eyes.

---

"Okay, you have a point," I said after five minutes of awkward silence. "You should understand, though, that your lives are probably gonna be at risk, just because you're with me."

"That's not a problem," the older boy said, walking up to me. "By the way, my name's Peter Pevinsie, and my sister is called Susan."

I was relieved, which is a really weird feeling when a boy you've just met, after being told by you that he might die if he follows you, says it's not a problem at all. The relief factor probably had something to do with the fact that these four all had normal names. I mean, I'm not one to judge people, but most of the kids who'd been in my year at school had really odd names. On the other hand, weirder names are easier to remember - it's a strange balance, I guess.

"Look, before we can figure out what's going on, we have to get some stuff first. I know of a second-hand shop about half an hour from here where we can get you guys some normal clothes and I can pick up some other stuff we'll need - tents and the like."

"How will we get there?" the girl called Susan asked me. It was now officially clear that she really did hate me - no pretenses or politeness or anything.

"We'll drive," I said. "I can borrow my mum's car - she never really uses it, and it's big enough that all of us can fit."

---

The hitch in the plan was getting that bunch through the house. I decided against introducing them to my mum and little brother. Instead, I was to go home alone, get the car, drive back to the meadow, and fetch them. That in itself was a risk - who knew what that bunch could do in ten minutes - but I had to do it.

I'm going to skip over the part involving convincing my mum to give me her keys, since it's pretty boring. She was as in the dark as possible, yet she didn't even ask where I was going. With that happy thought, I drove to a parking lot near my meadow and hopped out of the car.

"Wow, that thing is HUGE," Edmund said, eying the car with an automobile enthusiast's eyes. "How many people fit in it?"

"Five," I said. "The seats are pretty marked-out - seat belts and everything. Let's see - Lucy, you get in the middle of the back seat. You guys decide which of you sits in front with me, and the other two of you sit on either side of Lucy."

Seat belts were probably an unfamiliar concept for this crew, but they figured them out quite nicely. The older boy, Peter, would up in the front passenger seat. Susan was behind Peter, sulking in a way that I didn't think was possible for someone so pretty; meanwhile, Edmund was behind me, with his head sticking out the window. He was so clearly fascinated with cars that I decided, if we survived whatever they had to do, I'd have to introduce him to my older sister's fiancee, Henry the Horrible, who was the biggest car nut I knew.

Twenty-five minutes later (I'd gone a little over the speed limit), we were outside the best resale shop in Northern England. We climbed out of the car and went inside. The smell of used junk and cleaning solutions tainted the place, but I liked it all the more for the smell.

More than anything else, I wanted to wake up and see that life was normal and the war and these strange kids were just a dream. More than anything else, I knew that wouldn't happen.


End file.
